Author Archive

In order for a personal brand to convert leads into sales, the right marketing strategies need to be in place.

Keys to help you with your marketing ideas for your small business. Enjoy the power of your marketing efforts as a small business or marketing professional.

Even with a limited marketing budget you can still make a strong impact with targeted and creative ideas that will both help you to get your small business in front of a new audience, and retain and engage the customers you already have.

Your brand message.

To stand out from the crowd with confidence you need to know yourself well before you promote your services and products. Optimise your virtual presence. Demonstrate your excitement, your knowledge and uniqueness.

Reach out – Be social – Share yourself

‘If you’re not having a good time now you never will’ Deepak Chopra

The precision of social media is exactly what makes the medium such a great way to hone your brand message and to get clear about exactly who you are and what you offer. Most small businesses now have at the very least a Facebook or Twitter account, but why not expand to Instagram, Pinterest or Google+ to reach a new customer base and further show your creativity and vision? Create innovative and original social media accounts that promote your small business, and share your personality.

Build Relationships

As a small business and marketing specialist you have the opportunity to build close meaningful relationships with your customers. I carefully nurture all my network connections daily. Take time to find out what excites them and what help you can offer them. Cultivate a personable authentic presence online. Be real. These close relationships can develop into strong advocates for your service and referral programmes. Word of mouth is strengthened by the genuineness and generosity of your social network

In paying it forward with gratitude you will enjoy testimonials and referrals and receive so much more.

Think local

I regularly feature my photographs of Gower as above. I personally take these photographs during my trail treks through both North and South Gower. I add hashtags to #Gower and #Langland as regular tweets to my networks on Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. By demonstrating real enthusiasm and excitement for your countryside and coastline you demonstrate a real commitment to making your business integral to the growth of your neighbourhood.

Learn how to network here on LinkedIn. To become influential you would be wise to join group discussions that get you excited. I regularly contribute to the Welsh Rugby group discussions.

This interesting article explains how to connect your brand to high-level influencers. Above all, find out what get’s you excited enough to want to convert leads into sales.

Carolyn Williams. Breathing new life into business. I drive new leads, followers and advocates online for small business owners & entrepreneurs to boost revenue.

My activity on Instagram has increased these past few months and there is one connection in particular who has gained my interest by asking questions. Her sales pitch points out the aesthetic physical benefits plus financial gains to the buyer. Her attractive selling connects with new followers and potential clients on a daily basis.

What you say, write and how your body language reflects those words have a big impact on those you do business with. Steve Martin wrote: The way in which feelings and emotion impact on decision-making and behaviour can be powerful.

Professor Marianne Bertrand of Chicago Business School recently found that simply by printing a picture of a smiling young woman on an envelope containing an offer for a financial product led to a significant increase in response.

In Daniel Pink’s recent best seller, To Sell Is Human, he argues that very point -“we are all in sales whether we like it or not”. We are all participating in non-sales selling when we are convincing people to exchange something of value with us even if it is something non-monetary such as their time or attention. If they give us their attention, they will receive valuable information and advice from us.

Many people are or wish to be entrepreneurs, and while they would describe themselves as having the entrepreneurial drive or spirit, they don’t believe that they are very strong salespeople. In reality, we are all in sales. We are all tasked with persuading people to buy into whatever it is we are selling or responsible for, even if it is only an idea”.

What can we do for ourselves to become better salespeople?

Reframe our perspective

We can learn how to listen

We can observe what skills and recommendations a person looks for before consulting someone

Confidence – We can own our insights about our own business

We can ask proactive questions

We can be ready to act on our own personal procrastinations

We can become allies to our minds for breakthrough thinking

Be keen to connect and not exploit when networking. Be keener to build a lasting relationship that helps us all learn that time spent with each other is worth it.

‘I don’t love it because I sell social media benefits…I sell it because I love it’.

Carolyn Williams, helping you capture new followers, advocates and how to generate new leads for your business?

You never know when the next conversation will be the one that will change your life.

Sometime ago I arranged a chat with a creative connection, after I felt I was being swamped by a certain mind-set. Since then with a purpose, I look at new ways to be creative about networking and business.

Here are just four tips to help you do it better:

Circulate (Get Out into the real world)

Oprah did it, and you can do it, too. It’s time to leave the comfort of your corner suite, cubicle, garage, coffee shop, or home office, get out into the world, and network.

Oprah was sharing food and conversation in a social setting. We all do it. Why not do it better?

Step outside from your comfort zone

I started a café style conversation four years ago, and this has led to a series of more conversations that have helped shaped my life and work.

“Using seven design principles and a simple method, the World Café is a powerful social technology for engaging people in conversations that matter, offering an effective antidote to the fast-paced fragmentation and lack of connection in today’s world.

Based on the understanding that conversation is the core process that drives personal, business, and organizational life, the World Café is more than a method, a process, or technique – it’s a way of thinking and being together sourced in a philosophy of conversational leadership”.

Listen

Larry King once said, “I never learned anything while I was talking,” and he was right! It’s better to impress someone by showing interest in them than to talk too much about yourself. This is your opportunity to gather information and find where you can help them or connect on a project yourself. At the end of the day you can empower others just by listening to them—and that can be a gift in itself.

Build Trust

Franklin Levinson, the Horse whisperer from Maui, daily conversations is an example of how he shares his lifetime skill and experiences of building trust with horses.

Several magical conversations later, arranged around Cardiff and Swansea and on Skype, I am able to share great insights from conversations with other strategists, who I believe help people to see the world in a more connected way.

Grow yourself and your business at the same time and just start getting out of the office!

Whether you’re with potential clients, colleagues, or friends, circulate and meet others outside your immediate circles. You never know when the next conversation will be the one that will change your life.

You can follow more of my café style conversations on Breathing for Business scoop.it.

I have not put pen to paper for some weeks. I guess the pull of an early spring/summer has taken me outside into the open office. I’ve marvelled at the joys, sights, smells and sounds when the sun arrives early in Wales.

I have been reading lots of articles on social media. One author, Delilah Dawson, in particular challenged her readers to Please shut up: why self promotion as an author doesn’t work and ‘to focus on your energy on the one thing that’s in your control: writing the best book you possibly can. Focus on editing each sentence to make it sing’. I adore singing and have been listening to some incredible songs lately, that of the early morning bird and this Daddy, who is so patient and loving with his daughter singing. She is a Hoot!

‘Britain’s Got Talent’ judge, Mr Simon Cowell has made his fortunes choosing and promoting talent all over the world. He summed up his current best contemporary composer, Golden Boy Calum Scott by saying ‘‘you took us all on an emotional journey. We were all sucked in’.

Are you conscious of these doing words:

Listening

Focusing

Pulling In

Emotional

Journey

Do you resonate with Delilah Dawson, who says ‘I don’t want to be badgered, urged and threatened, cajoled at or whined to? Or do you want to be drawn in by what you hear and read online? Do you attract new potential clients with song links, pictures, and roller coaster post links? Or are you too squeezed to remember who you are following and listening to?

Have you opened any new doors lately? Well for starters stop doing the same thing that got you here in the first place. Commit to moving forward. Commit to opening new doors.

Carolyn Williams, helping you capture new followers, advocates and how to generate new leads for your business?

Where do you get your energy and stamina to push through that new project of intention? Every good coach will motivate their client to write down their hopes and dreams in black and white having focused on a chosen project.

Doing the research, then editing your dreams requires energy and stamina to bring about the completion of a dream project.

So how do you stay on the message?

Travelling on a train allows me time to read, draft before I conduct my research on foot. Acting on the intention to complete a project requires determination, a focus but above all a belief which is constantly energized.

An acceptance that nothing stays the same I believe helps us to marvel at new opportunities and connections yet to be made.

Transience Passing with time. Zen thinking says uncertainty and transience are at the heart of everything. The more you clutch onto things, ideas or people or material possessions, the more you lose them. You can’t really know anything for sure.

Transience for me is very real, starting again, adjusting to both my grown up children starting careers and lives of their own.

Seeking inspiration and energy for that new start, that new project is on our doorstep. We can focus on the big picture and change the lenses for the small print but we need to adjust our focus constantly to accept the changes. Being smart enough to grasp that opportunity, that changing gap in the market.

A new way of looking at frozen smiles, feelings and thoughts. Please read on…

This message was from a lovely connection who asked me to post blogs dealing with tough times. “It’s been a tough year so any blog posts you have to deal with winter and a tough year that would be ideal!”. So while travelling to enjoy a magical weekend in freezing London exploring Borough Market and the impressive Shard Building and Windsor Castle in the crisp sunlight (read more below) this article about expression put me back in touch with my Smile!.

If you see an expressive face as emotive and human then muscle- paralysing Botox might not appeal. As Botox has become such a wide spread practice among so many from all walks of life. Lynnette Yong, a Harley Street doctor, says “since restricting movement in multiple facial sites you simply cause lines to occur elsewhere. Muscles are designed to be flexible”.

Most people want to look good for their age and less tired. Here is a confidence boost without botox.

One writer who tried Botox did’nt like the reduced facial expression and has decided not to use it again. “Expression is such an important part of human interaction – study after scientific study proves it – that I would rather accept my frown lines than have them be a barrier to communication”. Why not enjoy instead a full range of surprises and scepticism that brows can express?.

How do you reduce lines and wrinkles?.

Enjoying great company – I was lucky enough to have this special invite to see some of these spectacular sights in London and Windsor and they really did put a smile on my face. I would highly recommend you take a trip if you haven’t already seen them?.

What a contrast and what spectacular sights. Even the “hot ginger and honey” drink prepared in the Borough Market, warmed you up from inside. Smiles all round, as everyone dressed in hats, scarfs and layers to keep out the north wind.

What did you do over the weekend?.

Carolyn Williams, helping you find ways to re-energise you for your business?

“Self-compassion is keeping a caring, gentle eye on my most important needs and desires—big or small and inner or outer—and giving yourself permission to do more of what brings you ease and energy, and less of what drains you.

How you start your day and finding your flow influences how productive you are. Be present.

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs understand the benefits of having an early-morning routine. These famous creative minds knew that getting the most out of their morning routine meant finishing their day the right way.

The way you start each day is incredibly important. What you do first thing in the morning matters whether you’re a trainer, a writer, a small business owner or a busy mum and dad.

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs understand the benefits of having an early-morning routine. These famous creative minds knew that getting the most out of their morning routine meant finishing their day the right way. But a morning routine is only half of a productive day; the other is the evening routine that precedes it

Reading a good book is known to quieten the mind, lessens stress.

Share events of the day when sitting around a table.

Doing something completely different to your daily tasks can be energising.

Meditation is action. Our mind is much harder to quieten than our body. Our lives are busy and fast paced, filled with external noise and distractions. Clarity comes from focus, from finding that quiet space within. Meditation, even in small amounts will make room for abundance. If you are looking for answers go within, meditate and then let go.

Yes, we know emotion sells. This view has that ‘wow’ factor to win the imagination of those who are lucky enough to capture the moment.

Have you ever asked yourself if you deserve to be happy?.

Dr. Robert Horden, Positive Psychology and Founder of The Happiness Project has written a book called Happiness Now!

Happiness is your true nature, It’s you minus your neurosis.

A standard happiness research model suggests

50% Genes – Personality
40% from choices
10% or less from life circumstances.

He adds “It’s no longer believed that our personality is wholly dictated by genetics. Instead we’ve found that the functioning of our genes changes according to nutrition and attitude, so choices play an even bigger part of our happiness than originally thought. Being grateful for what you have rather than complain about what you don’t. Choosing to believe that happiness is not something that only comes to those who deserve it”.

Social animals

Whether we like it or not we have an influence on the world due to the fact that our inner being radiates peace, energy, joy and gladness, we all possess it. We need to think of a way that benefits those around us. We need to do it because human beings are social animals and we all owe something to the world. We are all connected somehow, so the way we feel influences others right?.

We can choose to select the positive interpretations which boost our well-being. Telling ourselves nice stories, enjoying the moment, as opposed to obsessing about the future. True happiness comes from when it’s shared, as we see daily here on social media networks. It’s contagious, intoxicating and sparkling like champagne and like champagne it’s not meant to be drunk alone.

Dr Limin Zhu graduated in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from the University of Liaoning, China, which took 5 years of study in both Western and Chinese medicine. She was conferred Bachelor of TCM in 1982 and then worked for 9 years as a Senior Physician in Liaoyang Hospital of TCM, China, and also worked for one year in Beijing Hospital of TCM before she came to Swansea in 1991.

She has had busy practices in the Swansea Clinic of Natural Medicine for 7 years and then, in April 2000, set up her own clinic – The Clinic of Chinese Medicine in 107 Walter Road. With over 29 years of experience in treating various conditions she provides a professional, warm and friendly atmosphere for her patients.

Dr Limin Zhu’s father, worked as a Consultant in a hospital in China. Her husband’s research as a civil engineer at Swansea University brought her to Swansea in 1991. They have a son, who having studied medicine at Cambridge University is now a cardiac doctor at Cambridge University Hospital.

Perhaps you’ve been putting up with a health condition for some time, and maybe you have tried medication, or other therapies, doing everything you can think of that will improve your health, and you’re still having a hard time trying to figure out why it isn’t working.

Dr Limin’s chinese medicine success stories are in treating fertility problems in women. She now has a growing Baby Club as testimony to her work in the Swansea Clinic. Her many other success stories are in treating blood pressure, arthritis, migraine and stress relief.

As a long term migraine and temporomandibular disorder sufferer (a problem affecting the chewing muscles and the joints between the jaw and the base of the skull) I highly recommend her migraine and pain relief acupuncture treatment.

As a highly loved and respected Chinese medicine practitioner in the Swansea community, she certainly does provide a professional, warm and friendly atmosphere for all her patients.

In this book Penny helps you understand how you can build your social media community. Here are a few examples of how that message translates for me on the web.

Connect for energy.
Make new friends preferably happy ones. Research by Harvard University shows that each happy friend you have, increases our chances of being happy by 9%, while each unhappy friend we have, only decreases our odds of being happy by 7%. So statistically we’re better off with a new friend than without one.

Laugh

I laugh a lot with a few chosen witty connections

Help each other.
I created my fan page on FB (and more) with the help of a ‘high’ sharing connections.

Sharing

I love the ‘footprints in the sand’ analogy which suggests when the load gets too ‘heavy’ you share the load. Being present listening to the successes and the ‘tough times’ of a new connection. I share my high’s and lows with special connections and YOU!

Act.

Do you get to know your connections?

Have you tried laughing or crying or dancing with your connections?. Being pro active I do all of these things through my blogs, organising and attending events. I’ve met and joined countless new friends through events. Many of whom are now shining stars throughout the social media networks.

There are many different ways you can hug your connections. Retweeting their blogs, commenting, agreeing, and agreeing to disagree on their posts.

Be You.

Listening to Olly Murs being interviewed on Radio One last night, on route back from the M25, I heard the interviewer say the audience immediately connected with Olly on stage. Why? He loves entertaining by being himself and he genuinely loves performing in front of his audience.

Enjoy time together through events, these can be online through skype, webinars or offline by arranging promotional events at your favourite venues,

Spreading real value over the web is an art.

Franklin Levinson facebook page is an example of how he shares his lifetime skill and experiences of building trust with horses.